Human activities are threatening seventy one percent of the place we call home— the home we've relied on for the past millions of years. Although this is not the part we live on, it is our source of life, yet, we continue to be unconcerned about such issues and allow ourselves to slowly kill the planet that created us. We depend on our environment, an intricate and intertwined network of land, water, air, ice and the biosphere, for crucial resources that it provides us. This varies from the most simple necessities like food, to biofuels to medicines that have changed lives. The ocean is our main source of water and is filled with marine ecosystems. Additionally, it is also what billions of people rely on as their livelihoods. As a 'silent partner' to our lives, it contributes to the weather, the climate, coastlines, the atmosphere, sea life and even the air we breathe in. Yet we ignorantly continue to pollute and destroy the ocean.
With increasing rates of overfishing, eutrophication, acidification and pollution that have caused ecosystems of beautiful animals and coral reefs to decay and die. Overfishing affects the population of marine life, causing an unbalance in ecosystems, impacting the food web which contributes to losses of marine life, including endangered species and vulnerable organisms. It can change the rate of fish reproduction and growth. When the demand for seafood increases, but the supply decreases, jobs and coastal economies diminish. However, demand continues to overexploit and degrade the environment.
A further concern is atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration—a result of global warming— has been increasing and is being absorbed into the sea, lowering the pH and causing ocean acidification. This problem has caused the reduction of chemical capacity, affecting marine animals' ability to function properly. It also creates dead zones, which are parts of the sea that are no longer inhabited because of the lack of oxygen leading to eutrophication. Organisms in the polluted areas cannot survive and so the biodiversity loss affects aquacultures and fisheries, making people dependent on the supply and the economy.
Human waste in our seas has a significant impact on the surrounding environment, especially plastic debris. Plastic is a burden to our planet, taking hundreds of years to break down. The presence of a single plastic bag can damage the ocean by ingestion, entanglement and lack of oxygen for respiration, all which contributes to sea animals mortality rates. Researches say, by 2050, the amount of plastics will soon outweigh fish in the ocean. The damage plastic does also extends to us humans. Microplastics have been found in various species of sea animals, even being detected in animals at the top of the food chain. This accumulation of microplastic in the food chain eventually reaches our dinner plates.
A shocking example of all of this is a single cruise ship can produce millions of gallons of hazardous waste and emit various poisonous pollutants into the air, harming organisms' homes and contributing to global warming. These organisms' homes are at the brink of collapse from physical destruction and the consequences of human activity, showing little to no hope for recovery. Our existence depends on the ocean. Without protection from laws and regulations, life below the water will continue to be taken advantage of and further harmed until this catastrophe spreads to all bodies of water on our planet. Therefore, we must take action to protect these vulnerable habitats and manage these problems with effective regulations. For this to succeed, cooperation from all nations is needed to ensure the sustainability of oceans which can only be achieved when we realize the significance of marine life and the full dimension of this crisis.